Vineet (top) and College of Military Engineering, Pune, where he delivered a lecture. Telegraph pictures

Ranchi, Oct. 31: Making friends online and surfing the Net till late in the night do not go waste, always.

Passion for ethical hacking nitty-gritty can take one places.

Ask Vineet Kumar, a Class XII student of Army School. His online friendship with 2,000 overseas hackers, mostly of the US and UK, helped him enrich his knowledge in cyber security.

So well-versed is Vineet on the subject now that he is flooded with invitations for delivering lectures on ethical hacking.

Ethical hackers, explained Vineet, work for a good cause; they do not destroy nor cause any harm to data.

If there is vulnerability in any site, a hacker can destroy all data and information in the system or network.

“We suggest people how to secure the network of the system. If seasoned hackers spot any ‘port’ (opening in the site) open in mails, they can misuse them and indulge in mail forging,” Vineet explained.

A member of the Global Ethical Hackers’ Association, Vineet wants to open an Internet security centre in the state with an advisory body so that people can seek suggestions on cyber fraud.

Sharing his experience of delivering lecture on cyber security and ethical hacking at the College of Military Engineering, Pune, in September, an upbeat Vineet told The Telegraph that he was overwhelmed by the rapt attention with which the 200 and odd army officers listened to him for nearly three hours.

Besides a letter of appreciation, Vineet was given a cheque of Rs 3,000 from the commandant fund of the college in Pune.

“Initially I was nervous. But within 30 seconds I regained composure and started giving the army officers tips on cyber attacks and their remedies,” Vineet said.

The little wizard also drew applause while addressing a gathering at Vellore Institute of Technology on October 9 against an honorarium of Rs 5,000. He received a letter of appreciation from the dean of the institute, V. Radhakrishnan.

The army officers at Dipatoli Cantonment here were also mesmerised by Vineet's concept on cyber world while he addressed them in August. He got a letter of appreciation from the commanding officer, Col J. Hota.

Besides earning accolades for his lectures across the country, one of his articles, “The national anti-hacking group protecting the national data” was published in technology magazine Digit in July 2006.

Vineet, however, regrets not delivering a lecture at the NDA, Pune, as he was preoccupied with studies.